Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sewing and More Baking (Long Post)

These are the blocks that I made for the last 2 classes of my "Quilt Making By Hand" at Purl Patchwork. The second class was about triangles and the third class was about set in seams. Apparently, there are blocks that are much easier to hand sew than to machine sew them. Like the one on the top left hand corner, the Spool block.

Sadly, the last class is tomorrow. I have really enjoyed taking another class with Cassandra, the teacher, and I am sad that it's ending. Tomorrow we will be learning about basting, marking the top, quilting designs, hand quilting with a hoop, and binding by hand.

Someone asked me what fabrics I am using in the comments, but there was no blog link or email link, so I will answer it here. It's called "Bleeker Street" by Marcus Brothers. I got it as a fat quarter set by this Etsy Seller. The green solid fabric is from Joann Fabrics. There was no specific project for this class, but I would like to turn the blocks that I have made into a quilt. I just have to make more blocks and figure out how to arrange the blocks.

This big block (11 inches square) was made for Rebekah. I was invited to join a virtual quilting bee called Common Threads. For round one, Rebekah sends fabrics out to the 12 of us and tells us how big she wants the block to be and what general design that she would like. We have a month to complete it and send it back. Then the next month, it's someone else's turn. My month is December and I still haven't decided what I want yet.

My sister emailed me a link to these cute cookie cutters and I had to have them. Home made Animal Crackers!! There are 5 spring-loaded cookie cutters: Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Tiger and a Seal with a ball on it's nose. They are made by Williams-Sonoma.You can buy the pre-made mix for $12, but there is a recipe on the back of the box and it's on their website along with a how-to video. I didn't want to spend money on the mix and made the recipe from the back of the box. Easy peasy!

I do have to say that cutting them out and imprinting them is not as easy as the video demonstrates. First off, the cookie dough softens really easily, so do it in a air conditioned kitchen or keep frozen cookie streets on hand. You can put the cookie dough on the cold cookie sheet to firm up the dough or throw the whole thing back in the fridge. I had problems with the giraffe's neck and the elephant's trunk. The other animals were easy. Flouring the cookie cutters really well helps a lot.How do they taste? Delicious! They are crisp and crunchy. They are kinda addicting. You can't just eat one. I made a batch for my friend's daughter, Veronica, though I heard that her dad ate them all. DH loved them and couldn't stop eating them. I can't wait until Melody can eat cookies.

All right, this post is long enough. I promise to give my review of my Anniversary Dinner at Mesa Grill next time.

The quilt blocks are lovely. This is the second time I've seen fabric on your blog that I have in my stash (I have some of the like polka dot fabric left over from a curtain. I like the fabrics you have that go with it.

and ever since I read about your last post about hand quilting i've got it in my head that I need to take a class on that sometime. (nice and portable for summer time at least.) your blocks look great.

I -adore- those cookie cutters! I want to get them so badly, but I already have so many random shapes and things... Maybe when they go on sale, I'll snatch them up. For the time being, I'll just have to oggle yours I guess! ;)

Making animal cookies reminds me of Martha Stewart. Once I saw her make s'mores, but she actually made the chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmellows. I didn't even know you could make marshmellows. Who knew you could make animal cookies, too?

Your quilt blocks are pretty, Oiyi! And the cookies are sooo adorable! I love to buy cookie cutters and I always have a lot of problems with those fancy ones like what you have. But seeing the finished products and then eating them are the best part! I'm sure Melody will love the cookies when she is able to eat solid food in a few months time! ^_^

Blocks look great! I'm thinking about taking hand piecing because I just don't have the time to sit down at the machine for long stretches of time. But I spend a lot of time commuting on the bus and it would be nice to have something small to carry around and work on (other than knitting).